From their
founding through the early 1930s, smoking was prohibited at both the Northfield
Seminary and the Mount Hermon School. Students pledged to refrain from the
habit even during vacations, and a single offense resulted in dismissal. As
smoking became more widespread and socially acceptable, the rules regarding
smoking were gradually relaxed. First, the penalty was reduced from expulsion
to suspension, the young poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti being one of the earliest
to benefit from the rule change. Later, Mount Hermon seniors were allowed to
smoke in a lounge – popularly called “The Blue Cloud” – in what is now the
music building. The strictures at Northfield remained tougher, with no smoking
allowed on campus. Through the 1960s girls traveling to and from school were
only permitted to smoke on trains and buses which were traveling north of
Brattleboro or south of Greenfield. At the merger of the schools in the fall of
1971 smoking was extended to allow any student with written parental permission
to smoke within specially designated areas on campus. By the early 1990s, with
the risks of smoking and the dangers second-hand smoke well-documented, and
with prohibitions against obtaining tobacco by those under 18 now law, school
rules changed again.

from The Bridge,
vol. XXIV, no. 4, p. 1; December 11, 1992.

NMH Smoking Policy: No Butts About It

As the 1992-93 academic school year
got underway, and abundance of changes affecting the NMH community were
introduced. Among the changes implemented was the third phase of the infamous
Smoking Policy. This phase had been a long time coming.Those who chose to light up would be forced
to extinguish their habit.

A committee was established to
assemble an effective non-smoking policy. The committee assembled was composed
of faculty, administrators, students and health officials.The purpose of the policy was to eventually
make NMH smoke free. A three year plan was put into effect in 1990. In the
first year, all of the student body was allowed to smoke. Then in the second
year the phasing out began and only juniors and seniors with parental
permission were allowed to smoke in designated areas. Finally, during the
1992-1993 school year the final phase of the policy was put into effect and no
one except faculty and staff, in designated areas or in their own homes, are
permitted to smoke.

The student response has been
mixed. However, for all of the complaints, the policy’s effect has been felt.
Currently no students are on D.P. (Disciplinary Probation) as of now due to a
violation of the smoking policy. Smoking and non-smoking students alike seem to
have greeted this change in policy with heated feelings. As one former nicotine
addict states, “If people think that this change policy has curbed the use of
tobacco, they are living in a fantasy world.” One non-smoking faculty member
declared, “I don’t object to smoking, but I feel we need to protect our kids.”
A nearby student pipes up upon hearing this faculty statement and states,
“That’s an exemplary point!”

NORTHFIELD - What’s a graffiti
writer to do in “the sticks,” where subway cars are scarcer than hen’s teeth?

The answer is “rural graffiti,” in
which hay is more than for horses.

For the past week or so, someone’s
been stealing into Frank Podlenski’s field off Route 10 and rearranging the hay
bales into messages for passing motorists.

Some of the words have four
letters, and Northfield police have been trying to keep one step ahead of the
country-style vandals. That means, walking down the bank to change the bad words,”
which are clearly visible to traffic up on Route 10. Northfield police don’t
push the hay into new configurations, though, said officer Eugene Miller.

“I’m not that ambitious,” he said.

Nathan Stewart, who edits
Northfield Mount Hermon School’s newspaper, The Bridge, said the hay games
began between Pioneer Valley Regional School students and what appeared to be a
rival team.

NMH students – who can see the hay
from the shuttle buses that carry them between the school’s two campuses – got
involved in the creative hay shuffling last weekend, writing a commentary on a
disciplinary problem at school.

Someone, explained Stewart, had
walked off with some keys from campus security, and school officials warned
there would be curfew for everyone if they weren’t returned.

“KEYS?” the haystacks read.

Sunday, after the key culprit was
found, the stacks were changed to “GOTCHA.”

Early this week someone rearranged
the hay into an advertisement for a Springfield radio station: “WAAF 107.”

And Thursday, a few Bridge staff
members gave their newspaper a plug, “The Bridge.”

“It’s just fun and games,” said
Stewart.

Frank Podlenski, who owns the
Bennett Meadow property that borders on the Connecticut River, says he isn’t at
all upset by the pranks.

“It doesn’t bother me a bit,” he
says. “If someone wants to have fun – as long as they’re not doing me any
damage – God bless ‘em.”

Ed.
note: This story was picked up by the Associated Press and appeared in
newspapers from as far away as Albuquerque, NM and Miami, FL.

The case of Commonwealth vs. Alice
M. Brereton, for the larceny of a piece of cake from the store room of East
Hall, came up before Judge C.I. Scofield in the winter session of the
Northfield Seminary Superior Court, at Marquand Court House, Tuesday afternoon,
November 30. The Commonwealth was represented by District Attorney Eliza S.
Halsey, and the defendant by Lawyer Eldridge. The witnesses were sworn in by
Clerk Elizabeth Aitken and the prisoner was brought in by Sheriff Julia Rieser.

The district attorney called the
following witnesses: Misses Mamie Milk, Catherine Utley, Elizabeth Hendrickson,
and Grace Prouty. Evidence was issued to prove that a handkerchief scented with
a certain perfume that could readily be distinguished from all others on
account of its peculiarity to itself, said perfume alleged to have been the
property of the defendant, was found near the cake box from which the cake had
been abstracted. Lawyer Eldridge, for the defendant, called Misses Flora Dobbin
and Sadie Whalen as witnesses, who swore that on the night in question the
store room was locked and the defendant was away from the building all night.
In rebuttal the Commonwealth brought forward evidence to prove that the
defendant was in East Hall on that night and that she made brown bread, which
was served with beans for breakfast Sunday morning.

After eloquent pleas by both
lawyers, and His Honor’s solemn charge, the jury retired, and after a short
session brought in a verdict, “Not guilty.”

___________

COURT ROOM NOTES

Arthur J. Philips was fined $50 for
contempt of court, and ordered to remain in the custody of the sheriff until
the fine was paid.

The entrance of the executive
committee of the Mount Hermon Good Government Club caused His Honor so much
annoyance that he instructed the sheriff to arrest anyone making further
disturbance.

After the adjournment of the court
the executive committee of the Mount Hermon Good Government Club was sentenced
by the Current Events Club to one hour’s solitary confinement in Wayside Inn.

Editor’s
note: The Sheriff went on to found the Whitney Museum of American Art.